Nintendo Planning a New DS?

It seems like a lot of people in the gaming community really, really want Nintendo to upgrade its products and give us something new and innovative. This is particularly true of the DS, which has remained more or less unchanged since its debut in 2004. While there have been a few minor design changes over the past four years, the handheld has remained functionally the same, and many believe that the system is started to show its age.

Given this lust for something new, Kotaku talked to several industry sources who claimed that Nintendo was indeed working on a major update for the DS, one which would make both screens bigger, brighter, and more touchable. That’s right: according to the sources, both screens would now be touch-sensitive, thereby opening up a whole new world of possibility (and potentially confusion).

The story also mentioned that any announcement made by Nintendo would be put on hold until sometime next year, meaning that confirmation will be hard to come by in the meantime. Nintendo helpfully spurred this rumor along by providing a no comment on the issue, and chalking up the current buzz to "rumor and speculation." The wording is a bit tricky, but its important to note that Nintendo has not actually issued an outright denial, but rather tried to deflect the story.

What it all comes down to is that a new DS, if it is indeed in the works, would make a lot of sense. Even though the system is currently doing well, sales have begun to slow considerably, especially in Japan, and the handheld is inching ever-closer to its fifth birthday, practically a dinosaur in hardware years. While we won’t be sure about this until next year, we’re going to let our naive hopefulness take over and call this one likely.

TGR Verdict: Very Likely